What We Used to Be
by nattylovesjordy
Summary: Ellie sits and thinks about Chuck and how much he's changed since Stanford. No pairing.


**Author's Note:** This story was written around the one dialogue line at the end. My friend said/made that up and she told me to write something after it. Therefore, this fic is dedicated to Adrienne. Hope you enjoy it, girly!  
This was written in Ellie's POV and there's no romance. I wanted to try something different! So, you should R&R and tell me how I did!

_Disclaimer: I don't own _Chuck_, the song lyrics at the end (Pictures of you by The Last Goodnight) or Stanford. Just figured I'd throw that one out there... And, if I did own Chuck, Jill would be in a constant state of pain, Bryce would be dead with blood and gravel in his mouth and I would steal Chuck from Sarah for a little while. Then she'd get him back!**  
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**What We Used to Be**

Over six years ago, my little brother Chuck was kicked out of Stanford and lost his girlfriend to an ugly man named Bryce Larkin. This particular even sent him down on the spiral of depression.

After Stanford, he was rarely ever genuinely happy. Eventually, he got better, but the sadness remained in his eyes for a very long time.

Bryce, who was one of his closest friends, had cruelly stabbed innocent Chuck in the back. Never in his life had Chuck seen the test key, but he was still sent packing for it.

Personally, I had never been so enraged and upset at the same time. Not even with everything that happened with our parents. Bryce Larkin was, as of the very moment Chuck called me and told me as he cried, the person who would never want to bump into me at the supermarket or anywhere else that had sharp objects. And then when he stole Jill? Oh, Bryce was completely dead to me.

As for Jill, he never really did get over her and every time he'd talk to a woman, he'd go on this rant all about her. Devon and I tried to get him out of the habit, but it was proved impossible.

But, no matter what, I'd always be there for him. After all, it was what we did for each other; we' take care of each other.

Five years after the whole Stanford-Bryce ordeal, Chuck met Sarah. From the moment he walked in the door to tell me, I saw the happiness in his eyes along with the goofy grin that was rarely shown.

The moment that I heard the word 'date', I couldn't have been any happier for him. Of course, this now meant that I had to teach him how to date all over again and help him choose clothes, but it was what I wanted to do.

And then when he didn't come home all night? I figured he'd gotten lucky, but I knew that Chuck wasn't the kind of guy to have sex on the first date. It was one of his charming personality traits that always made me more surprised when Jill gave him up for that bitch.

But, as Chuck walked in the door, his face showed something else. Being his sister, I've always been able to read his emotions, but at this time I couldn't.

From that point on, Chuck was distant and kept a lot more to himself. At first, I brushed it off with excuses of him getting used to dating someone again, but as time went on, I realized that there was something very wrong with this relationship.

Some nights, he'd come home with a multitude of bruises and scratches. When I called him out on them, he'd say that he tripped walking down some stairs or he ran into a wall. Being a doctor, his explanations didn't cover every scratch and bruise, but I trusted that when the time was right that he'd come and talk to me about it.

Except he never did.

Then, when he missed Mothers Day, I knew for sure that something was up. Chuck wasn't the person who forgets important information or days; he just wasn't. And then, right before Devon proposed, when he and John were gallivanting through the apartment, John having a knife in his hand...

It's now been a year since he met Sarah and things started changing with him. I love my brother to death, and Sarah makes him one of the happiest versions of Chuck that I've ever seen, but I feared what was going on within him.

Tonight, Chuck has another "date" with Sarah and I wasn't expecting him to be home before 1:00 am. Much like their first date and Mothers Day, I sat awake and waited for him to come home.

But he never did.

I called him a few times, and he didn't answer. I called Sarah a few times for good measure, but hers went straight to voice mail. Finally, I stopped calling so that I wouldn't come off as the paranoid older sister who has to know where Chuck is at all times.

Now, still sitting on the couch with some coffee, I look at some of my favorite pictures of the two of us. He was happy in these pictures. Back then, when these pictures were taken, he'd tell me everything and we'd take care of each other. But now, that had all changed.

Gazing at the pictures, I ask myself: Is it worth it? Is Sarah and his new-found happiness worth me losing a special part of Chuck? Is his happiness worth letting the topic go? Hoping that it's just a phase he's going through?

But the answer doesn't come to me.

To no one in particular, I speak while looking at one of the older pictures of us together. "You have been reduced to the face in a photograph. 'Cause the person I see is different from the person now."

_Pictures of you, pictures of me  
Hung upon your wall for the world to see  
Pictures of you, pictures of me  
Reminds us all of what we used to be_

_Confess to me, every secret moment  
Every stolen promise you believed  
Confess to me, all that lies between us  
All that lies between you and me_


End file.
